Ico: Distant Hills
by Writer of Epics
Summary: We all know the story, a small boy with nothing to lose and a young girl with everything to gain with the odds stacked against them. Well you don't know this story. What really happened on that island. What happened after. How does a former prisoner and a cursed boy make their way in the world. Older Ico.


**A/N: So you may be wondering why I'm making another new story with my other ones still unfinished. well my head is bursting with ideas, literally, and I have to get them out somehow to make the voices shut up. I'm just kidding, but, it is very hard to think when you have a story shouting at you to be put down onto Microsoft word, who uses paper anymore anyways. ;)**

* * *

Ico, like many before him, was born in misfortune. It was actually kind of funny, he mused as the horse jolted painfully, bad luck had followed him like a plague for most of his life, but now, well this was a little much.

Ico was sitting uncomfortably on the back of a horse whose reigns were tied to a soldier's horse. He had black, crop-cut hair and intelligent brown eyes. He had never ridden before and now suddenly being forced to without time to become accustom was starting to give him riding sores. The shackles he wore bit into his wrists as if just to remind him he wasn't here by choice. The whole situation pissed him off, but then again, most things pissed him off nowadays.

He was dressed in brown leather pants, a pristine red shirt under an ornately woven blue and white parka, and new sandals. To finish off the attire, he had a role of bandages wrapped around his head with his foot long bull horns poking out from between the bandages and stretching to the sky proudly.

These horns were the reason he was dressed in these deceptively beautiful clothes and dragged to gods know where to do gods know what. But the journey was almost over, he could feel it.

When the village had dragged him out of the run down hovel he called home, bathed him and dressed him in the fancy get up that probably cost a month's worth of work from everyone in the village to pay for, there had been a somber feel to the air. Like guilt and regret. The same air had been hanging around the three soldiers as they picked him up, shackled him like a criminal, and began their journey. That was two weeks ago, and none of them talked to him the entire time. But now, there was a feeling of purpose, the soldiers were sitting up in their saddles, looking straight forward, like they were going to war, or an execution.

'_Okay,'_ Ico thought, _'bad line of thought, time for a change of topic.'_ Ignoring the complaints of his sore body, Ico turned his head to look around. He had to admit, it was a very beautiful day. There was curious wild life, not around humans often enough to know to be afraid. A small family of deer was just inside the thicket of trees lining the road, just staring at the small parade of soldiers and their prisoner. The soldiers didn't seem to notice or care but Ico was momentarily intrigued by the odd occurrence, deer never strayed within two miles of his village, despite the thick forest surrounding it.

His attention was removed from the deer as the horses jerked to a sudden stop. Squirming in discomfort, Ico slowly raised his head…and was frozen in awe.

The horses stopped just short of the edge of a sheer cliff dropping off into the ocean. The height would have made Ico dizzy if he had been concentrating on it. As it was, he was distracted by the enormous castle in front of him. It was sitting on an island, well; more like it _was_ an island. There was not a square inch not covered by the stone marvel. Not only that, but there were two other smaller islands on either side of the first one with towers covering them. A single wall stretched between the two towers with a gate in the middle, wide open.

'_Wait a second,' _Ico thought as his face scrunched up in confusion, _'This is where we're going? There's no bridge! How do we get over there?' _at that moment, Ico was pulled down off the horse. While he was sitting there lost in thought, the soldiers had dismounted their horses and after pulling Ico down, began walking down a thin ridge like path. Walking with one soldier behind him and two in front, Ico had nowhere to go. _'Not like I would get far as it is.' _Ico thought bitterly. Ico kept his head straight, staring holes into the back of the soldiers helmet, anything to not look down, he knew it would not be good if he did.

Eventually the scarily thin ridge widened out and ended with a wooden dock extending into the canal between the islands and the cliff. Moored to the dock was a rickety looking boat that looked like it would fall apart at any second. Ico would have resisted if one of the soldiers hadn't laid an armored hand on his shoulder, cutting off any possible objection he could have voiced. The ride was surprisingly uneventful. After coming around the large island, they pulled into a cave of a fourth island that was hidden behind the first one.

The largest soldier pulled Ico out of the boat and ordered another to "retrieve the sword". His voice was surprisingly gruff, but his message sent a small wave of fear down Ico's spine. One of the soldiers saluted and ran off. _'CRAP! They're really gonna do it, they're gonna kill me!'_

When the soldier returned, he was carrying a large blade with and ornate silver scabbard. Nodding to his underling, the soldier who Ico now knew was in charge, placed his hand on Ico's shoulder and led him forward, followed by the other two. After a bit of walking, the cave opened up to a large circular room with a ceiling so high, it was shrouded in darkness, hidden from sight. In the middle of this room was a pillar that stretched up to the ceiling, or so Ico assumed. The soldiers didn't stop to admire the view, or awe at the architecture, but kept leading Ico forward. This brought his attention to the two, idol like statues.

They looked like people, well, sort of. They were stylized, but they looked a little bit like large people sitting on their knees, like they were praying, and on their laps, were horned children, with their arms wrapped around their legs and their heads resting on their knees. The whole thing had a forlorn feeling about it. Again, Ico didn't have much time to gawk at the craftsmanship. The soldier wielding the sword walked ahead of the group, in front of the two statues. He began unsheathing the blade, but stopped before removing more than a couple of inches. A bright light emanated from the sword and lightning like energy arched from the metal to the statues, causing them to light up with a sickly green glow.

Ico could have sworn the idols were moaning as they slid apart to reveal a doorway inside the pillar. The soldier leader shoved Ico in first, the rest following. At this point, curiosity about the strange sights he was seeing was overriding any fear or anxiety he should be feeling at this point. The idols slid together as the last soldier filed in. _CLICK_. Ico turned his head to see that one of the soldiers had pulled a switch on the far side of the pillar. He was almost knocked on his ass by the sudden shift and rise of the floor.

For several minutes, they kept moving upward inside the pillar. Finally the floor stopped and shifted to a locked position, the only exit blocked by what appeared to be the backs of two more horned idols. Repeating the process with the sword, the soldiers walked Ico into an enormous grand hall with statues sitting in alcoves along each wall. The sheer amount of these statues was amazing. Each appeared to be made of stone and they lined from one end of the hall to the other, from the floor, to the ceiling. They led him up a flight of stairs to a particular statue. What was so special about this statue out of the hundreds others was a mystery to Ico, until they held the sword up to it, and opened it.

It was hollow on the inside, with two holes set into a small pedestal inside of it. Ico was having a hard time wrapping his head around what he was seeing, until he noticed the smell. It was pungent, sickly and sweet, mild and unnoticeable, but invasive once consciously observed. Elbowing the soldier that was left to keep him still in the gut, causing the man to double over in pain, he raced to the nearest statue that seemed to be giving off the smell. A faint buzzing could be heard emanating from it.

'_It couldn't be! I have to be mistaken!' _Ico willed, hoping that for the love of the gods, he was wrong. Peering through the slit in the statue, Ico's stomach dropped. Inside of to statue, no, inside of the _sarcophagus _was a skeleton with a few flies buzzing about inside. The small skeleton appeared to have been around eleven or twelve, judging by the size at least. And the smell was the smell of decay. Ico backed away from the stone tomb, and promptly collapsed to his knees and puked on the stone floor. The worst part of that skeleton, were the horns sprouting from its skull.

'_Oh merciful Osa, these others, they were just like me!' _ He couldn't help but repeat this over and over in his head, like some demented mantra. He felt two men pick him up by the arms and begin dragging him to his tomb. Pausing in front of the stone coffin, the solders allowed their leader to remove Ico's restraints. Ico's eyes flashed with anger and defiance and as soon as the shackles were off, Ico lunged at his captors, fully intending on killing him if need be, anything to keep out of that _thing_!

He didn't get the chance. As soon as he moved, the soldiers grip on his arms tightened and a metal clad fist deposited itself in his gut. The will to fight them rushed out faster than his breath and Ico just slumped in their arms.

"Don't hate us." The lead soldier begged, "This is for the good of the village."

Ico couldn't help but get some lat word in, if he was gonna die, he was gonna lay on as much guilt as he could. "Yeah," he murmured to the soldier, contempt dripping from every word, "just keep telling yourself that. I'll be sure to tell Justus and Osa how noble you were when you sacrificed _children_."

The man's shoulders sagged as if some weight was suddenly placed there, but they placed Ico in the sarcophagus anyways. He was too big to stand in the stone coffin so they placed him on his knees and shoved his wrists into the holes in the pedestal, giving him the appearance he was praying. Then they shut the coffin. Nothing had ever sounded so final then that heavy stone lid grinding into place.

"May Osa forgive us and find mercy for all who rest here." whispered one of the soldiers in prayer.

"Amen." The others agreed quietly. That was the last Ico heard from them as their footsteps resounded down the hall. When he heard the grinding sound of the pillar floor bringing the soldiers back down to the cave, Ico suddenly felt panicked. He could feel his heart rate speed up as he began to hyperventilate. Tugging on his restraints, Ico felt like puking, but he had nothing more to cough up, so he kept tugging, desperate to escape. Finally, in one last pull, he felt something shift and his whole tomb tipped. He screamed as the stone coffin landed on its side, spilling its contents onto the floor. What followed was the crack of Ico's head slapping painfully against the hard stone floor. Everything began to fade out but Ico could've sworn he saw something move in the corner, but couldn't make out just what. Then everything went black.

_Up, up, up. The stairs just kept winding upwards, never stopping, never branching off. It was like these stairs just kept going until they reached the heavens. It felt like he was climbing forever, but then something caught his eye. A speck, a black speck just floating in midair, still a ways up, but it was something to shoot for. He began to run. He stumbled and tripped but just kept running. His legs felt heavy and there was a wind blowing against him, like it was trying to keep him from reaching the top, but he kept on. He eventually came level with the speck. He was still nowhere near the top of the tower, but finally he had reached some sort of destination. It was a black metal cage with spikes extending upwards from the top and downwards from the bottom._

_Ico drew back slightly when a black substance began pooling in the bottom of the cage, soon overflowing the sides and dripping to the floor far below. He stood frozen as a figure began to rise, seemingly made from the same black substance around it. It was taking on the shape of a person. He took a step forward to get a better look when the stairs in front of him began to give way and fall. In a panic, Ico stepped back but didn't feel wall, but some cold thick goo. Looking back, he couldn't contain his gasp of fear when he saw the same stuff that was dripping from the cage forming on the wall behind him. _

_Before he could react, several thick strands, almost like tentacles, shot from the shadow and latched onto Ico's arms and legs, dragging him into its depths. He struggled in his panic, but it was fruitless. In a last ditch effort, he threw himself away from the goo, but only managed to free his face and his right arm. He was still being consumed when the creature in the cage held out a hand to Ico, as if calling him, or attempting to help him, but then he was taken. All he saw then was cold crushing darkness._

Ico groaned as he awoke on the cold stone floor. For a moment, he couldn't remember where he was or even how he got there. Rolling over, he rested the back of his head on the floor. Staring upwards, he saw a small skylight in the roof above, squinting as the noonday sun got in his eyes. He could hear the seagulls cry and smell the salty ocean air. Everything came back slowly.

"Oh yeah." He murmured to himself, "Guess I had luck on my side for a change." He knew he should feel angry, but for some reason he just felt numb. Gazing up at his former tomb, Ico saw that a piece of the stone alcove containing it had begun to crumble and had just given away when he had begun tugging. He could only remember one time when luck had favored him so, but now was not the time to reminisce; he had to get the hell out of here.

Head pounding and body aching, Ico managed to pull himself to his feet and take a good look around. The hall hadn't changed much since he last saw it. This didn't surprise him, judging by the noonday sun, he had only been out for a couple of hours. The doorway to the rising platform seemed to have lowered into the floor, or the floor rose over the platform. Regardless, he sure wasn't getting out the way he got in. After a bit of walking around, Ico found some kind of lever sitting in the center of a raised walkway that lined the back wall of the room. Hesitating, Ico couldn't help but feel cautious. This could do anything from showing him the way out, to setting off booby traps for trespassers. Gritting his teeth, Ico yanked hard on the lever and hoped for the best.

He honestly didn't expect to live, so sure was that it was a trap. After all, who just leaves a lever in the middle of the room? He heard the shifting of the gears and a loud clank of metal. He shut his eyes and froze, waiting for the end. After a few seconds he risked a look around and saw no change. _'The hell?'_

Hurrying down the walkway, Ico finally saw what happened when he pulled the lever. When he was looking around earlier, Ico hadn't noticed a set of bronze doors set into the stone wall. But now the doors were wide open. Ico had an unsuppressed grin stretching from ear to ear.

'_It's about time to get the hell out of here!'_

The door led to a room filled with boxes, like a store room or something. It probably led somewhere at some point but it got blocked off for some reason. It took Ico a minute, but he spotted a row of windows along the top of the wall, one of which had nothing to keep someone from going through it. A grin stretched across his face.

'_I'll be out of here in no time!'_

Glancing around, Ico found something useful. It was a long metal chain with a hook at the end. After a quick look at the ceiling, Ico found what he was looking for. A large wooden rafter, at least a three feet thick, lined the ceiling. It took a few tries, but Ico finally managed to sling the chain around the beam and hook it onto itself. Yanking on it to make sure it was secure, Ico climbed up to the ledge that rested just below the windows. Holding onto the chain, the end of which resided in his clenched teeth, Ico swung himself over to the ledge, and turned around.

Removing the chain from his mouth, Ico yanked the chain to the right, then to the left, dislodging it from the rafter and causing it to fall. Smirking at his gaining of a valuable tool, Ico was sure that his escape wouldn't be too difficult. Ico then wrapped the chain around himself from his right shoulder to his left hip. He connected the chain end with the hook, assuring it would not fall off, then proceeded to vault through the window.

He didn't expect the distance from the window to the floor, there was no ledge this time. He ended up landing in a kneeled position with his hands on the floor in front of him, like he was bowing to something. Lifting his head, Ico saw a wall in front of him, sitting in the middle of the room. He could tell because he could the far wall over the top of it. And right in the center of the wall, were four horned idols, most likely blocking a doorway. Sighing, Ico stood and looked around. On his side of the wall, there was a spike lined ledge on both sides of the room, each led to a gap between the spikes and the wall with a ladder going up in that gap. Glancing upwards, Ico saw he was in a tower, a very tall tower too. Following the spiraling staircase on the inside walls of the tower, Ico saw that it connected to the ladder on his right.

Ico shrugged. _'When you've hit the bottom, the way to go is up. Funny,' _he thought as he began climbing the ladder, _'I've heard that all my life, never thinking I could go lower than before. Turns out I was wrong.'_ He chuckled bitterly at the thought and began climbing the tower. After a while, a sense of déjà vu began to take hold and Ico was suddenly looking for a cage hanging in the tower. He was beyond surprised when he actually found one. He was about to turn around when he saw something in the cage. Not a shadow, but a light. Curiosity took hold of him and he began to climb the stair with new fervor.

It wasn't long before he reached the top, or, near the top. He leveled with the cage but there was a piece of the staircase that had crumbled, leaving a large gap between the end of the walkway and where he was. The light was actually a girl. She was curled into a ball, with her head resting on her knees. In this position, she reminded Ico of the idols, with the horned children, that's how sad she looked. She was wearing a pristine white dress that seemed to glow in the light. It had a dark brown color on the shoulders and along the neck line. He tried to see her better but just couldn't get a good look.

"Hello?" he called. She didn't react, at all. Frowning, he tried harder. "Are you okay? How did you get in there?" he still got nothing. Ico growled in annoyance but persisted, "Don't worry, I'll get you down." Glancing at the gap in the walkway, Ico could see the chains release lever at the end, but the gap was too wide to jump. He briefly considered jumping out to the cage and seeing if their combined weight would break the chain but realized that was a bad idea. Looking around, Ico noticed a couple of the large windows that let light into the tower had broken shutters. It was a long shot, but it was a possibility that a ledge or walkway connected the windows and would allow him to bypass the gap. Climbing the ledge, Ico remembered just hopping out of the last window and falling for a ways.

He crawled out achingly slow, careful to have solid grip and footing the whole time. He had to suck in his breath to keep from swaying when he saw that the windowsill just dropped off into empty space. There was a ledge, but it only extended about half a foot from the tower wall. A look to the left told him the small ledge did indeed connect to the other broken window, but one wrong slip along the way and he would be dashed on the sea rocks an immeasurable distance below.

Gritting his teeth, Ico stood precariously on the ledge and began shuffling to his destination. He turned his head to the side and stared at where he was going, determined to not look down. In reality, it took maybe five minutes at most for him to make it from one window to the next, a total of about ten feet, but to Ico, it felt as if he traveled on that balcony for an eternity. When he finally made it to the window, he just collapsed through it, near desperate to have whole solid ground beneath his feet. He was breathing hard, like he had just run a mile and his heart rate was off the chart. His hands were clammy and he could feel sweat running down his face.

He could feel someone watching him, that's what managed to wake him from his fear induced trance. Looking up, he saw that the girl had finally reacted. Not much, she raised her head as if in curiosity. He now saw that her skin was equally white, if not a purer white than her dress, and had the same glowing properties it did as well. She had grey mousey hair and large grey eyes. It gave her an overall supernatural appearance.

Giving her a confident smile, Ico stood on his shaky legs and strode over to the lever. He grabbed it with one hand and pulled. Looking back, Ico couldn't remember if he was trying to impress the girl, or if he truly thought the rusted, ugly looking metal rod would move so easily. But it proved adamant, squeaking and screeching as if progress was being made. But it stayed in place, not giving an inch. Finally fed up, Ico clenched the lever handle with both hands, braced his foot against the metal railing on the side of the walkway, and simultaneously pulled on the lever while pushing against the railing for extra leverage. After a moment of pulling and huffing with effort, the lever finally gave, yanking into release position and then snapping off at the stem and sliding over the edge of the walkway and down toward the tower floor far below.

After a second or two filled with only Ico's breathing, the screeching sound of metal scraping metal filled the air and the girl's cage began to lower slowly. Ico began running to keep up, using his height over the ledge on the other side of the gap to land safely back on the walkway and continue running. But even so, the cage lowered faster than he could go and left him behind. When the screeching of the gears and cogs stopped, Ico assumed the cage had reached the bottom, but when he reached the ladder's platform, he saw it wasn't the case.

A gear must have gotten stuck or something because her cage stopped a good five feet over the floor. _'This could be a problem, she looks to unsteady to _jump_ out of the cage; I'll have to find a way to lower it some more. I wonder how long she's been in that cage anyways.'_

On a hunch, Ico climbed the ladder on the other side of the room and found it led to a walkway that travels the length of the small wall in the middle of the room, passing very close to the hanging cage. An idea formed in Ico's head as he rushed into position. Counting to three, Ico leapt off the walkway, hurling himself at the cage, praying to the gods he didn't impale himself on one of the many spike protruding from it.

He managed to land safely and wasn't much surprised when a weak link in the chain holding the cage in the air snapped. That was what he wanted to happen. He was surprised however when he landed flat on his back with the air rushing from his lungs. This he did _not_ want to happen.

Wheezing, Ico managed to prop himself up on his elbows, and what he saw took his breath away. In the cage, she looked like a caged dove, something to be pitied and released. Now she looked like a _princess_, or a _goddess_. She stood regally. She walked with elegance. Never once losing her posture, even when she was bending down to touch him, wait, what?

Ico shook himself out of his daze to find the girl coming closer and closer with a curious look on her face.

"A-are you okay?" Ico stammered. He couldn't stop his heart from pounding for some reason.

"Qui êtes-vous? Comment avez-vous ici?" She asked with a tilt her voice. He assumed it was a question.

"Um," he hummed trying to think of a response. He decided the truth would probably be a good place to start. "They brought me here to sacrifice. That's what they do to people with horns in my village." He explained. He could tell by the confused glance that she didn't understand what he was saying at all. He could relate.

Suddenly a shadowy arm snaked around her waist and pulled her away. She gasped in fear and… pain? Did it hurt to be held by a shadow?

Shoving his curiosity to the side, Ico launched himself at the retreating specter, half expecting to go right through him. He didn't. the tackle caught the shadow full in the back, causing it to drop the girl roughly to the floor, and for it and Ico to tumble to the ground as well, albeit, a great deal more rough. For a moment, Ico thought that was all it took as the being sank into the ground. Ricking a glance toward the girl, he saw she had backed up to a corner and was back in her fetal position, shying away from the multiple bug/bird like things that glided around her.

It was then that fist suddenly implanted itself into Ico's gut. Ico was thrown into the air before crashing harshly on the stone ground. The shadow revealed that it wasn't defeated, but merely had the ability to sink into the ground to avoid injury. Ico growled at the prospect. He couldn't help but ask himself what the hell this thing was.

Raising his fists in a brawler's stance, the creature jerked like it had snorted and rushed him. He didn't know what to expect, but he definitely didn't expect the creature to sink into the ground last second, just to resurface in front of him and knock him off his block with a backhanded swipe. If he didn't crash into it when he fell, Ico probably never would have thought about even _trying_ to find the broken lever. Filled with rage induced strength, Ico cared little about the fact that the lever had embedded itself into the stone floor. Luckily it had only hit the mortar keeping the tiles together, so it wasn't completely impossible to remove, just difficult.

As it was, Ico yanked the rod from the floor with one pull accompanied by a growl at his bodies protest. As his eyes found his enemy once again, with its back turned as it concentrated on retrieving the girl, his sight was covered by a film of red. Shouting out a wordless cry, Ico charged the shadow, rod held tightly in both hands. Just as the creature turned to face Ico once more, Ico drove the rod straight through where a normal man's heart would be. Ico's vision returned to normal as he came down from his adrenaline high.

When he looked into this creature's fading orbs of light where the eyes would be, he got the distinct feeling of sadness, helplessness, then finally… relief. Then it itself faded. Just turning to smoke around the metal rod and drifting away.

A gust of wind suddenly rushed by as all the small bug-like shadows rushed to a pool of shadow on the floor. A ripple of sickly yellow light emanated from the pool and several of the shadow beings rose from it, and more kept coming, one for every shadow bug. Desperately thinking for a way out of this, Ico grabbed the girl by the hand and pulled her to her feet as quickly as he could. He might have been a little rough but at the moment, courtesy was the last thing on his mind. He pushed her behind him with his left hand and wielded the broken lever like a blade in his right hand. The shadows just kept advancing though, and they just kept retreating. It was looking like it was over when the girl suddenly tripped and fell against one of the horned children idols. A large amount of lightning-like energy arched from her to the idols… exactly like when the soldiers used the sword.

The outer two of the four idols shifted forward while the inner two shifted to the side to fill the now open spaces left by the first two. Not only that, but some of that energy arched from the idols and branched out to hit every one of the shadow creatures, dispelling them all.

"Quick," Ico almost shouted as he grabbed her hand and rushed forward. He pulled himself and her up three ledges to a door set into the middle of the far wall.

For the first time since coming to this place, he smelled fresh air without dangling thousands of feet in the air. He breathed deeply for a few moments before he became dizzy and started to slump. Luckily, the girl managed to catch him before he could hit the floor. she dragged him for a short distance before settling him down onto a couch made out of a strange white stone. When the girl sat next to Ico, he was already fading. He had a lot of things to digest from just today alone, the sacrifices, how to escape, and the shadow creature. But when he was fading out, the only thing he could think of was who the hell this girl is.

* * *

**A/N: So yeah, some differences. for one he's older, there's a reason for that and I will explain at a later date. the next weird one, the chain. I thought that while good for the game, it was kind of ridiculous that a chain would hang off of a ledge whenever Ico needed one, so I changed it so most of them would just be him being prepared with a tool he collected. Make sense. as always, please review, it wont hurt you and it encourages me. and I hoped you enjoyed reading it. W.O.E. out!**


End file.
